Russia has the largest video games player base in Europe, with an estimated 65.2 million players nationwide as of 2018.[1] Even though piracy has been a great issue in the Russian gaming industry,[2] the games market more than doubled in the past five years to over $2 billion in 2019.[3]
In 2001, Russia became the first country in the world to officially recognize competitive video gaming as a sport.[4]
The history of mass videogaming in Russia (back then in the Soviet Union) takes its roots in the early 1980s when personal computers of different models (Atari 400/800, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 48/128) were brought to the country from the United States, Europe, Japan, and China.[5] At the same time, a local brand, Electronika, released a series of portable game consoles which were mostly clones of Nintendo products. By the mid 80s, Soviet programmers and enthusiasts began trying to develop their own games.[6] [7] The most famous Russian game designer of that era is Alexey Pajitnov, who created the worldwide megahit Tetris.[8] [9]
The Dendy, a Taiwanese hardware clone (Famiclone) of the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System), was released for the Russian market in 1992.[10] By 1994, over one million Dendy units were sold in Russia.[11] The Dendy went on to sell a total of units in Russia and other post-Soviet states.[10]
In 2010, Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of Russia encouraged local video game companies to make video games that were patriotic, as it was felt that foreign video game publishers made games that were anti-Russian.[12]
The first Soviet arcade game machines did not contain digital graphics, and the games' interface had to be emulated with help of physical objects.[13] [14] [15]
| Company | Location | Founded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1C Company | Moscow | 1991 | |
| Eagle Dynamics | Moscow (Founded) Switzerland (Current) | 1991 | |
| GFI Russia | Zelenograd | 1996 | |
| Nival | Saint Petersburg (Founded) 3 offices (RU & Europe) | 1996 | |
| Saber Interactive | Saint Petersburg (Founded), Fort Lauderdale, FL (HQ) Multiple offices (Worldwide) | 2001 | |
| Ice-Pick Lodge | Moscow | 2002 | |
| Nevosoft | Saint Petersburg (Founded) Moscow (Other offices) | 2002 | |
| Targem Games | Yekaterinburg | 2002 | |
| Unigine Corp | Tomsk (Founded) Clemency, Luxembourg (HQ) Multiple offices (Worldwide) | 2005 | |
| Allods Team | Moscow, Voronezh, Bishkek | 2006 | |
| ZeptoLab | Moscow Barcelona (HQ) | 2008 | |
| Pixonic | Moscow (Founded) Limassol (HQ) Multiple offices (RU & Europe) | 2009 | |
| Lazy Bear Games (Ex-GameJam. Renamed in 2015.) | Saint Petersburg (Founded) | 2010 | |
| Alawar | Novosibirsk | 2011 | |
| Brainy Studio | Perm | 2013 | |
| Hungry Couch Games | Moscow | 2019 | |
| Moon Moose | Saint Petersburg | 2019 | |
| SoftLab-NSK Ltd. (See RU wiki) | Novosibirsk | 1988 | |
| G5 Entertainment AB | Russia (Founded) Stockholm (HQ) Multiple offices (RU, UA & worldwide) | 2001 | |
| Deus Craft | Novosibirsk | 2003 | |
| Game Factory Interactive Ltd. (Founder & as developer) | Moscow (Founded) Multiple offices (Worldwide) | 2003 | |
| Sigma Team (See Simple wiki) | Novosibirsk | 2003 | |
| Katauri Interactive (See RU wiki) | Vladivostok (Founded) Kaliningrad (Current) | 2004 | |
| KranX Productions (See RU wiki) | Kaliningrad | 2004 | |
| Haggard Games | Rostov-on-Dov | 2005 | |
| Trickster Games | Russia | 2005 | |
| CarX Technologies | Moscow (Founded) Multiple offices (Worldwide) | 2006 | |
| Destiny.Games | Moscow | 2008 | |
| 101XP.com (Also online games) | Moscow (Founded) Nicosia (HQ) Multiple offices (RU, Europe & CN) | 2009 | |
| Game Garden | Moscow (Founded) San Francisco (HQ) | 2009 | |
| Russia (Founded)[16] [17] [18] Stavanger (Current)[19] | 2010 | ||
| Flashback Games | Saint Petersburg [20] [21] [22] [23] | 2010 | |
| 8floor Ltd | Russia London (HQ) | 2011 | |
| NeoDinamika | Kaliningrad | 2011 | |
| Clarus Victoria | Moscow (Founded) Multiple RU areas | 2013 | |
| Four Quarters | Russia | 2013 | |
| LLC Blini Games | Saint Petersburg | 2013 | |
| Tequilabyte Studio | Tomsk | 2013 | |
| Tortuga Team | Kaliningrad | 2013 | |
| Do My Best Games | Moscow | 2014 | |
| Fair Games Studio (Also GD Forge) | Kazan | 2014 | |
| Glyph Worlds | Krasnoyarsk (Founded) UA (Another office) | 2014 | |
| Nearga Team | Moscow (Founded) Multiple offices (Worldwide) | 2014 | |
| Morteshka | Perm | 2015 | |
| SK Team | Moscow (Founded) Multiple RU, UA & BY areas | 2015 | |
| Ktulhu Solutions | Moscow | 2016 | |
| Owlcat Games (See RU wiki) | Moscow Nicosia (HQ) | 2016 | |
| RtsDimon | Chelyabinsk | 2016 | |
| Rumata Lab | Nizhny Novgorod | 2016 | |
| Unfrozen Studio | Saint Petersburg Limassol (HQ) | 2016 | |
| Alter Games | Moscow | 2017 | |
| Dark Crystal Games | Saint Petersburg (Founded) Varna (HQ) Multiple RU areas | 2017 | |
| Mighty Morgan | Saint Petersburg | 2017 | |
| Mundfish | Moscow Rockville, Maryland (Corporate) | 2017 | |
| RedRuins Softworks | Moscow | 2017 | |
| Tiamat Games | Moscow | 2017 | |
| Wild Forest Studio | Nizhny Novgorod (Founded) Multiple offices (Europe) | 2017 | |
| Mono Studio | Samara (Founded) Brooklyn (Office) | 2018 | |
| Zelart | Volgograd | 2018[24] | |
| BitLight Games | Russia | 2019 | |
| Black Caviar Games | Krasnodar | 2019 | |
| Rummy Games studio (Ex-MV Games. Renamed in 2020.) | Moscow | 2019 | |
| Different Sense Games | Saint Petersburg | 2020 | |
| Door 407 game studio | Zelenograd (Founded), UK (HQ) | 2020 | |
| Frozen Line | N/A | 2020 | |
| Kinderril Games | Russia | 2020 | |
| MadRock Games | Moscow | 2020 | |
| Magic Hazard | Kyiv & Russia | 2020 | |
| Mihanikus Games | Moscow | 2020 | |
| Mr. Pink | Russia | 2020 | |
| uglycoal | Russia | 2020 | |
| Game Art Pioneers | Moscow | 2021 |
| Company | Location | Founded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nikita Online | Moscow (Founded) Rostov-on-Don (Another office) | 1991 | |
| MY.GAMES (Also casual dev) | Moscow (Founded), Mountain View, CA (2nd main branch) Amsterdam (HQ) Multiple offices (Worldwide) | 2009 | |
| Battlestate Games | Saint Petersburg | 2012 | |
| GFA Games | Moscow | 2016 |
| Company | Location | Founded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| HeroCraft | Kaliningrad (Founded) Nikosia (HQ) Multiple RU & UA areas | 2002 | |
| Elephant Games | Yoshkar-Ola (Founded) Yerevan (HQ) Multiple RU areas | 2003 | |
| Ciliz Co. Ltd. | Saint Petersburg | 2006 | |
| DominiGames (Smolyanskiy O.V) | Voronezh | 2006 | |
| Daily Magic Productions | Seattle (HQ, Founded) Kaliningrad (Regional) Extra office (UA) | 2009 | |
| Game Insight | Moscow (Founded) Vilnius (HQ) Multiple RU, Europe & ID areas | 2009 | |
| Red Brix Wall | Saint Petersburg Nicosia (HQ) | 2017 |
| scope=col | Company | scope=col | Location | scope=col | Founded | scope=col | Closure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creat Studios | Saint Petersburg (Founded) Canton, Massachusetts (HQ in 2005) United States (Another office) | 1990 | 2012-2013 (Stopped making games. Started making websites.) 2021 (Closed) | ||||
| Lesta Studio (Till buyout by Wargaming) | Saint Petersburg | 1991 | 2011 (Buyout) | ||||
| Russian Soft | N/A | 1991? | 1991? | ||||
| DOCA Studios | Zelenograd | 1992? | 1997? | ||||
| Akella | Moscow | 1993 | 2012 | ||||
| StepGames Inc. | Moscow | 1994 | 2012 | ||||
| K-D Lab Game Development (See RU wiki) | Kaliningrad | 1995 | 2012 (President also setup KranX) | ||||
| New Media Generation | Moscow | 1995 | 2015 (Game distribution ceased in 2010) | ||||
| S.K.I.F. (Ex-SBG Studio) | Moscow | 1996 | 2001 (Former staff setup Primal Software) | ||||
| ITEM Multimedia, Ltd. | Moscow | 1997 | 2014 (Inactive afterwards. Studio was 1st closed in 2004, reopened in 2010.)[25] | ||||
| Saturn Plus | Voronezh | 1997 | 2011 (Closed. Liquidated in 2016.) | ||||
| Apeiron | Saint Petersburg | 1999 | 2010 (Inactive afterwards)[26] [27] | ||||
| Burut Creative Team | Voronezh | 1999 | 2013 | ||||
| Elemental Games | Vladivostok | 1999 | 2015 (Some staff members moved to Katauri Interactive) | ||||
| Russobit-M (Founder & as developer) | Moscow | 1999 | 2013 | ||||
| Avalon Style Entertainment (Till buyout by 1C Company) | Moscow | 2000 | 2011 | ||||
| Quazar Studio | Timashevsk | 2000 | 2009 | ||||
| IgorLab Software | Russia | 2001 | 2012 (Inactive afterwards) | ||||
| Primal Software | Moscow | 2001 | 2008 (Inactive afterwards. Studio was setup by former staff of S.K.I.F.)[28] | ||||
| Revolt Games | Moscow | 2001 | 2014 (Inactive afterwards) | ||||
| SkyRiver Studios (See RU wiki, FR wiki) | Samara | 2001 | 2008 (Studio lead disappeared) | ||||
| VZ.lab | Saint Petersburg | 2002 | 2010 | ||||
| Alawar DreamDale | Irkutsk (HQ), Donetsk | 2002 | 2015? (Donetsk studio closed in March 2014) | ||||
| SkyFallen Entertainment (See RU wiki), (See UA wiki) | Voronezh | 2002 | 2012 | ||||
| TrashMasters Studios (Also 'TM Studios') | Moscow | 2002 | 2012 | ||||
| .dat media LLC | Russia | 2003 | 2011 | ||||
| СНК-Games (Also 'SNK-Games') | Moscow (Founded) Multiple RU areas | 2003 | 2016 | ||||
| DTF Games (See RU wiki) | Saint Petersburg | 2003 | 2004 (Ceased game development after 2004. Reverted to parent company's web publication.) | ||||
| Orion Software | Russia | 2003 | 2015 | ||||
| SPLine Inc. | N/A | 2003 | 2012 | ||||
| DayTerium | Kaliningrad | 2004 | 2015 (Changed to movie distribution) | ||||
| Dynamic Pixels | Moscow | 2004 | 2019 (Team moved to Eerie Guest Studios in 2020) | ||||
| EleFun Games | Novosibirsk | 2004 (Est.) | 2017 (Inactive afterwards) | ||||
| IceHill Entertainment | Yekaterinburg | 2004 | 2010 | ||||
| Litera Laboratories | Voronezh | 2004 | 2017 (Inactive afterwards) | ||||
| World Forge | Voronezh | 2004 | 2009 | ||||
| 4Reign Studios | Kursk | 2005 | 2009 | ||||
| I-Jet Media (Founder & as developer) | Yekaterinburg | 2005 | 2007 | ||||
| Phantomery Interactive (See RU wiki) | Saint Petersburg | 2005 | 2010 (Inactive afterwards) | ||||
| Yard Team | Russia | 2005 | 2014[29] | ||||
| Quant Games LLC | Moscow | 2007 | 2010 (Inactive afterwards. Studio was setup by former staff of S.K.I.F. & Primal Software)[30] | ||||
| Uroboros Games | Saint Petersburg | 2016 | 2020 (Former staff setup Different Sense Games) | ||||
| Cracked Heads Games | Yakutsk | 2017 | 2019 (Inactive afterwards) |
| Company | Location | Founded | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Art Vostok | Omsk (Founded) Limassol (HQ) | 2019 | Publisher & dev. Co dev (2d/3d). | |
| AtomTeam (aka. Atent Games, Ltd) | Tomsk (Founded)[31] Riga (HQ) Multiple offices (Europe) | 2014 | Publisher & dev | |
| Cats who play CJSC | Moscow | 2006 | Publisher & dev | |
| Efril | Temryuk | 2016 | Publisher & dev | |
| Flox Studios Ltd (Ex-Snow Arc Studio Ltd in 2012 to 2015) | Moscow (Founded) London (Another office) | 2012 | Publisher & dev | |
| HypeTrain Digital | Russia (Founded) Nicosia (HQ) Multiple offices (Armenia, CA) | 2015 | Publisher | |
| Innova | Moscow (Founded) Luxembourg (HQ) | 2006 | Publisher | |
| Konfa Games | Saint Petersburg | 2017 | Publisher & dev | |
| Kremlingames | Russia | 2014 | Publisher & dev | |
| LLC Noostyche | Samara | 2014 | Publisher & dev | |
| META Publishing | Moscow (Founded) Nicosia (HQ) | 2019 | Publisher | |
| Moregames Entertainment | Moscow | 2005 | Publisher & dev | |
| Motorsport Games | Miami (HQ) Moscow (Dev office) Multiple offices (Worldwide) | 2018 | Publisher, dev & eSports organizer | |
| Playkot | Saint Petersburg (Founded) Limassol (HQ) | 2009 | Publisher & dev. Mobile games. | |
| RainStyle Games Limited | Voronezh (Founded) Limassol (Game dev's HQ) | 2019 | Publisher & dev. Offshoot from defunct RainStyle production (2010-2022).[32] | |
| Snowbird Games | Moscow | 2008 | Publisher & dev. Firm was set up by former staff of Snowball Interactive/Studios. | |
| Solarsuit Games | Tomsk (Founded) Königsberg (HQ) Multiple offices (Europe) | 2018 | Publisher & dev | |
| Soviet Games | N/A | 2014 | Publisher & dev (Core & mobile games) | |
| Synthetic Domain | Sakhalin (Founded) GE (HQ) | 2018 | Publisher & dev (Turn-based Tactics) | |
| WallRus Group | Moscow | 2017 | Publisher & dev | |
| Yandex.Games | Moscow (Founded & HQ) | 1997 (Company) | Publisher |
| Company | Location | Founded | Defunct | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOKA Studios (Ex-Doka in 1987 to 1997. Ex-DOKA Media in 1997 to 2005) | Moscow | 1987 | 2001 | Publisher & former dev. Ceased publishing games in 2001. | |
| IDDK Group | Moscow | 1995 | 2012 | Ceased publishing games. | |
| Snowball Studios | Moscow | 1996 | 2010 | Old 1996 name: "Snowball Interactive". Publisher, dev & localizer. Merged with 1C-SoftClub. | |
| Discus Games | Russia | 2000 | 2008 | Publisher, distribution & dev. Inactive afterwards.[33] | |
| Media-Service 2000 | Moscow | 2000 | 2009 | Ceased games publishing in 2006 & game sales in 2008. | |
| Gaijin Entertainment | Moscow & Belarus (Founded), Other RU places (Till early 2010's) Hungary (HQ)[34] Offices in Europe & worldwide (Current) | 2002 | 2015 | Moved HQ and development staff to Hungary & other EU countries. | |
| Playrix | Vologda (Founded) Dublin (HQ) Multiple offices (Europe) | 2004 | 2022 | Closed down offices in RU & BY. | |
| LLC Intenzibne | Magas | 2012 | 2020 | Publisher & dev. Inactive afterwards. | |
| Azur Games | Moscow (Founded) Larnaca (HQ) Multiple offices (Caucuses, Dubai) | 2016 | 2022 | Closed down offices in RU. |
One in 5 Russians self report that they play video games, according to the Moscow Times.[35] Video games enjoy mass appeal in Russia.[1] [36] [37] Males make up 58% and females 42% of gamers.[38] Russians tend to be impulse buyers.[39] According to Newzoo 60% of PC gamers are male and 46% of mobile gamers are female.[40] [41]
According to J'son and Partners Consulting, the biggest growth in gaming in Russia was mobile and PC games in 2016.[42]